


Midnight at Dawn

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [158]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21605587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Sickly and dying, Sakura is visited in the night by a creature that promises an end.
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [158]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 8
Kudos: 64





	Midnight at Dawn

She could hear them whispering. At her bedside when they thought her asleep the servants whispered, sharing gossip of the doctor’s findings, but sleep had never come easy for her no matter that weakness closed her eyes and left her helpless to do anything more than lie still. Sakura heard them. In a way she was grateful, knowing that without this gossip her parents would never have been so honest with her about how far the sickness has spread.

To lie in the darkness of her own bedroom and listen to the lower class whisper about rumors that she would die within the week should have hurt and yet Sakura felt little more than relief. Her mother told her once that she was born a fighter. Even the toughest fighter grows exhausted.

Watching her last days go by should probably have been a sad occasion. Instead Sakura felt nothing so much as disappointment each time she opened her eyes again to see the sun rising outside her window and realize that she had survived another night of poor sleep and pain. She closed her eyes when the doctor came to exclaim with wonder that she still remained, listened to his whispers too as he assured her parents that her death would come to claim her still.

She did not open them again until the day had faded in to cool night time and she felt the touch of fingers in her hair. It was lucky for her and for him that she hadn’t the energy to scream. Everyone knew the fairy tales of the vampire king that stalked their forests and hunted by the moon’s light. Even as a young child she had not believed them, scoffing at the idea that any sort of creature could live for hundreds of years. Why should their life be so long when hers was destined to be so short? And yet as she looked up at the figure standing over her now she realized there was no one else this could possibly be.

Her end had come for her, if in a manner her doctor could never have suspected.

It was the hair that identified him first, a war banner of snarled black locks that almost seemed to drift on the moonlight filling the room. The eyes only confirmed her suspicions with their bright red glow so pretty and hypnotizing to look at. When he smiled his fangs fell over his lips and Sakura wanted to smile back.

“Have you come to feed?” she whispered.

“Are you not afraid?” Uchiha Madara tilted his head to one side, a predator questioning his prey.

“No. I am ready to die.”

He contemplated her for another moment before swooping down with unnatural grace.

“So ready to leave this place behind. I will help you to reach your end, though it will not be the end you are hoping for.” His eyes almost seemed to spin as they watched her absorb his words.

“If the death is painful I can take it,” she said.

Any momentary pain would be better than a lifetime of lying weak in a bed, unable to do more than rest and listen to others talk of the death she so desperately wished would hurry up and take her. Whether this was a dream or not she could not miss her chance to have the end he promised.

“Find me,” the ancient king rumbled as he bent closer. “And I will make you strong again.”

“But you’ve already found me first,” Sakura breathed. The spinning in his eyes was just so captivating, she found herself quite unable to look away.

“Indeed I have, oh blood of mine, and I have come to claim you.”

The piercing agony in her neck was unexpected yet she found herself unable to scream. A quiet gasp was all the sound she could muster to mark the end of this miserable life she was only too glad to be rid of. When darkness rushed up to pull her down Sakura didn’t bother to fight it. Her last vision was of Uchiha Madara, a figure out of legend, standing over her bedside with such a look of satisfaction she might have asked whether he could turn in to a cat instead of a flock of bats.

Words could not express how disappointed she was to open her eyes again and discover the sun rising. Such an anger filled her that Sakura flew out of the bed before memory could remind her that she hadn’t possessed the strength to do so in several years. To stand on her own two legs should have been a novelty. Her mind and her hands flew immediately to the sides of her neck. A scar. With shaking fingers she traced the crescent shape along her carotid artery, realizing now that she had been duped. Her eyes fell upon the mirror across the room that she hadn’t looked in to for several years, unable to reach it under her own power and uninterested in seeing the waste of her own sickly form. She practically flew to it now. To her absolute horror all she saw looking back at her was a pair of red glowing eyes. Fangs over her lips. Skin far paler than any sickness could ever achieve.

And Sakura screamed with a terrible, deep rage. She would find that demon as she had been challenged to do but when Uchiha Madara met her again the advantage would not be his. He may have doomed her but in turn he had also doomed himself when he promised death and instead gave to her a life unending from which the legends said there was no escape.

He would pay for this.


End file.
